Singer Larkin Grimm creates utopia through sound

The Harlem-based musician performs in Providence, where she lived for awhile after attending Yale.

By Susan McDonaldSpecial to The Journal

Larkin Grimm’s voice is sexy and commanding with its raw, almost visceral tones, something her promoter calls “a bloody howl that is fierce enough to gobble people whole and spit out their souls.”

Yet, in a recent phone interview, she is another single mom waiting for her son to get home and musing about the artistic side of her craft, her dedication to being considered an artist — by herself, her fans and her peers — unwavering.

“Why do people create anything?” she asks, quickly answering the rhetorical question with, “they are trying to make the world better. None of us can be as beautiful as their artwork, but we can strive for something beautiful.”

The Harlem-based musician, who lived in Providence for a time after attending Yale University, returns June 22 for a concert at The Grove.

Grimm's latest album, “Chasing an Illusion,” dropped June 16. She says she surrounds herself with “amazing people” and finds herself consistently holding them and herself to higher standards than the industry generally demands.

“Chasing an Illusion” is a freer sound than Grimm’s previous albums, as she blurs the confines of genres and infuses her songs with a more jazz edge, tapping older recording and mixing equipment to achieve a more unique result.

“I don’t get moved by today’s computerized pop songs — why would you Auto-Tune Beyoncé? — even though I recognize the artistry behind them," she says. I love old, flawed songs. It’s all about the feeling. Auto-Tuning is as bad for our soul as airbrushed pictures are to a woman’s self image.”

The lyrics on the new album are drawn from her life experiences, particularly motherhood. She calls it her “latest attempt at creating utopia through sound.”

“This is an album about higher love and truth — truth in sound, accomplished by recording live, keeping the vocals raw, hearing the actual sound of the room and letting the out of tune and out of time parts celebrate our humanity and imperfection,” Grimm notes. “This is the beauty of the album, as we honor the perfection of the divine energy that we invoke through the ritual trance of this music.”

Believing that the music is a product of the energy and vibe among the musicians at the moment of recording, she tries to direct that feeling to a degree. At one point while recording pieces for “Chasing an Illusion,” she started a conversation with her musicians about the book she was reading about a transgender kid whose father sent him to “straight camp.” A lesbian, she says she was also sent away when her parents learned about her first girlfriend.

“Through this music, I strive to be free — free from suffering, free from shame, free from inhibitions, free from language, free from hatred, free from oppression, free from gender, free from race, free from expectations,” she says.

“Chasing an Illusion” was written in the midst of Grimm’s divorce and at a time she found out she had skin cancer. Both left the artist feeling deflated and with an ego that was “crushed.” She turned to yoga, where she met other musicians who helped her regain her self-awareness through healing and creating music.

“It was like getting a head-to-toe massage — hitting all of your stuff and expelling all of your stuff,” she explains.

— Susan McDonald is a regular contributor to The Providence Journal. She can be reached at Sewsoo1@verizon.net.

If you go ...

What: Larkin Grimm

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, June 22

Where: The Grove, 25 Grove St., Providence

Tickets: $10 suggested donation at the door

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